San Cristobal de las Casas

A 12 hour night bus brought us to San Cristobal and when we arrived at 6.45am we opted to go to the first hostel suggested to us- Planet Hostel- it ended up being amazing with BREAKFAST INCLUDED.

Before we even got the chance to dump our bags in the room, a man that works at the hostel invited us to go to a maya village called Tzajala as he was already taking some students and only did a trip like this once every couple of months. Tired, dazed and confussed we just agreed and after changing we and about 10 other people our age got a colectivo to the villiage.

It was so humid there and really hard work walking up this massive hill... it was worth it though as once we got to the top we were able to jump in this freezing stream with a waterfall it was so refreshing. After eating lunch by the waterfall we all had a mud bath, which was really funny.

In the village we took part in a spiritual cleansing ceromony. To begin the ceromony the leader blew through a conch to gather us all. A vase of pink roses and white lillies was placed next to a bonire as an offering to the earth which we all stood around. the leader talked us through the ceromony (in spanish but someone did translate) and then he began to chant. He filled the conch with ashes and walked around the circle holding it beneath each persons face, we had to wash our face and hair with the smoke and say 'aho' which is maya for welcome. When this was done we had to salute each direction- north, east, south, west, the sky and the earth with our hands held high as the leader chanted and we had to touch our heads to the ground to salute mother earth.

After this preperation, the real ceremony began... everyone lined up to enter the demazcal (a low circular stone wall cover by canvus). Before crawling through the entrance we had to press our forehead to the earth and say 'Aho Demazcal'. Inside there was a pit and once everyone was in the demazcal the pit was filled with hot stones before water was poured over them, creating a sauna- steamroom affect. We were all sat in the pitch black whilst the leader chanted and sang. The songs were based on call and response so that everyone joined in- there were drums, wooden flutes and claves (I got to play them at one point).

It was a really crazy experience- we were in the demazcal for about 2 hours in total and afterwards got to jump in the icey river again.

After this we all got to eat with the Maya people and then we slept in the cabañas. The next morning we shared the most delicious breakfast with them before getting the collectivo back to Planet hostel.

In the evening we met up with two guys and two girls from the trip at Cafe Revolution, a really cool bar with a bohemian vibe. We got cocktails and red wine and danced to this really cool gypsy-rock band. Whenthe music stopped we went onto a bar with a live salsa band. I was taught how to salsa and merenge, then danced with some other people- very fun!

Early start the next morning as we went horse ridin at 9am. A pick-up truck came to the hostel, we sat in the trailer and got dropped to the horses. We rode through a beautiful, mountainous forest and over rocks to get to a maya village called Chamula. There was a large market selling fruit, scarves, cowboy boots ect.. The men wore thick belted, black fur vests and the women wore long, high-waist, black fur skirts with sliky short sleeved shirts. the church was stunning- a mix of catholic and maya beliefs. The floor was covered in pine leaves and candles, those worshipping the golden paintings were surrounded by candles, chanting and sipping fizzy drinks like coke or beer. This is so that they burp out any evil spirits.

The ride back was beautiful, we passed women washing their clothes in the streams and hanging them to dry on the rocks.

After lunch in San Cristolbal we wandered around and found the Maya market there. They sold jewellery, dream catchers, zapatista dolls ect... the San Domingo was stunning too- everything within it was gold.

On theour last day in San Cristobal we had another 9am start for el cañon de submideron. The canyon was incredible- it´s banks lined with jungle, crocodiles, pelicans, vultures and it was boiling.